Some of us saw and spoke with Dani Borgmann last Friday after the UNC game and she told us that she had officially retired from competitive soccer. She said that her legs had been giving her more and more trouble over recent years and that she realized it was time to make a decision about her quality of life vs a career in professional soccer.
Marcia Wallis is now playing Golf. Santa Cruz sentinel report on Wallis: Marcia Wallis played golf at Harbor High as a freshman before transferring to Los Gatos High and winning the Central Coast Section individual championship three years in a row, from 1997-’99. Last week, she qualified for the Futures Tour. "I’m stoked, I’m not going to lie," she said. Wallis shot a 217-total to tie for 13th at the qualifying tournament in Florida last week. The former Stanford University two-sport star, who also played professional soccer in the now-defunct WUSA, shined in the 300-player field, which represented 28 nations. Wallis was the third highest finisher from California — Palm Desert’s Nicole Dalkas (212 total for fourth place) and Pleasanton’s Paula Creamer (215, eighth) also qualified. The top 50 players gained Priority I status. Wallis will continue her daily practices until the 2004 season’s first event in mid-March. She will also compete on the West Coast Ladies Golf Tour in Japan in late February. "I want to hit the ground running when I get to the (Futures) Tour, so there’s no self-doubting or struggling with anything," Wallis said. "It’s like a preseason in soccer." More reports: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2003/October/20/sport/stories/03sport.htm
Hege & Unni Won't Be Back For the benefit of those of you who still check the Courage Forum, but not the International Forum I thought I would let you know that Hege Riise & Unni Lehn have both decided to play in Norway next year even if there is a shortened WUSA season that includes the Carolina Courage. Here is the link to the post about Hege's decision: Riise Decides to Play for Team Strømmen Here's the link to a Norwegian article about Unni's decision to play for Trondheims-Ørn: Professionals Returning Back to Ørn (Eagles) So does "777" make this thread a special tribute to Unni Lehn?? Even if it isn't, this post will serve as my own special tribute to my two favorite WUSA Norwegians Hege Riise (#10 on the Courage, #6 on Norway's NT) and Unni Lehn (#10 on Norway's NT and #7 on the Courage.) It would be "veldig kult" (very cool) to see some pictures posted here of Unni & Hege in action playing for the Courage. I just checked the FIFA WC site and came across the following articles about Unni that I hadn't seen before: Lehn living the life of a Norwegian in Carolina Q&A with Unni Lehn Unni Lehn Player Profile Any links to other articles about Hege & Unni would also be greatly appreciated.
Pictures Here are some action pictures of Unni playing for the Courage which I found on the Yellow Card Journalism website: http://www.ibiblio.org/footy/2003/0719_car_sd_ajm/ajm_7206.jpg http://www.ibiblio.org/footy/2003/0719_car_sd_ajm/ajm_7358.jpg http://www.ibiblio.org/footy/2003/0719_car_sd_ajm/ajm_7455.jpg http://www.ibiblio.org/footy/2003/0704_car_atl_ycj/web_sab_0226.jpg And here are some pictures of Hege juggling and watching her teammates after her bad injury(also YCJ): http://www.ibiblio.org/footy/2003/0614_car_atl_ajm/web_ajm_0368.jpg http://www.ibiblio.org/footy/2003/0614_car_atl_ajm/web_ajm_0393.jpg http://www.ibiblio.org/footy/2003/0614_car_atl_ajm/web_ajm_0456.jpg http://www.ibiblio.org/footy/2003/0611_car_was_ycj/web_sab_1680.jpg
Coach Jay is the coach for my future school Columbus State University, he is starting the program there.
Beth Sheppard is coaching in England. Just had ankle surgery again. Same ankle she blew out in 1999, but she's recovering well.
Lucks & USWNT Kristen Luckinbill is on Coach Heinrichs list for the next USWNT training camp. Congrats, Kristen! TR is also on the list, but no sign of Slaton. http://www.ussoccer.com/news/fullstory.sps?iNewsid=50967
I talked to Jay at the NSCAA Convention in Charlotte last month. He seemed pretty excited about having a job he's not likely to get fired from. http://athletics.colstate.edu/teamItem.asp?pk=21 Speaking of which, I also ran into Jim Houghton the following day. He's still in the area weighing his alternatives. I would suspect that he's in line for a paying job with whatever the WUSA does this year. The problem is that I doubt it's enough to live off of until the league relaunches.
Here is a good article from the Orlando Sentinel that features Fotop and Kim Montgomery-Yankowski... Working without a Net A lack of job security, and the uncertainty it brings, can haunt female athletes. By Rick Maese Use "bigsoccer" as both the username and password to access the article.
Thanks Fear! For those who do not read the entire article, Fotop and Yanki (Kim Yankowski Montgomery) are both pregnant!
W-League Some of the former Courage will be playing W-League in Greensboro with the Carolina Dynamo (play at Bryan Park). Final roster not announced yet.
Unni Scores Twice For Norway Unni Lehn scored two goals for Norway today in a 4-1 victory over Finland in their opening match of the Algarve Cup. Hege Riise also found the back of the net for the first time since tearing her ACL last year while playing for the Courage. The final goal for Norway was scored by former Courage international discovery player Solveig Gulbrandsen and former Courage goalkeeper Bente Nordby played all 90 minutes in goal for Norway. http://www.fotball.no/t2.asp?p=749&x=1&a=91307
Yea He does seem REALLY exciting. The school is really proud to have him as a coach and to also have the team as a whole! The field and other stuff is off to a great start, well when i went which was last month, and I picked up and newspaper and there was an article about it in there, so that's GREAT! So yea... our games are going to be crazy, the amount we have, but it'll help develop the team so that is a great thing I suppose.
I talked to Nordby1 yesterday. He said that Hege and Unni are playing on different teams and the previous day had faced one another. He said that Hege is also an assistant coach and we speculated about her future in coaching as she ages out of playing.
tiej posted this info on the Beat forum and I'm too lazy to put up the link...but apparently Overbeck is gonna be playing for the Beat in the Blaine, MN festival and then she will also play for the Courage in El Lay. Also..Tommy Stone will be coaching the Courage too.
Kristen Luckenbill played in goal with the USWNT today for part of the second half in their game against Brazil. It was her first appearance with the team, according to the announcers. Go Lucky!